


Tea and Solicitude

by blue_pointer



Series: A Glorious Retelling [47]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Advice, Ank'Harel, Canon Timeline, Don't copy to another site, Episode: c01e065 The Streets of Ank'Harel, False backstory, Gilmore is gay and tired, Keyleth is trying to be a good dad, Lies, Lockets, M/M, Marquet, Metallic Dragon!Gilmore, Minor Shaun Gilmore/Jarett Howarth, Not Jarett, Nudity, Secrets, Tea, Thinking, Vax is just jealous because he can't do math, Vaxmore, Vex'ahlia Is an Angel, Worry, bad timing, everything is fine, lonely, oh no, pronoun confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28906164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_pointer/pseuds/blue_pointer
Summary: In which Gilmore answers the door not looking his best, and Vox Machina worries.
Relationships: Shaun Gilmore & Vex'ahlia, Shaun Gilmore & Vox Machina, Shaun Gilmore/Vax'ildan
Series: A Glorious Retelling [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975831
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Tea and Solicitude

The next morning found Gilmore somber, though it was hard to say whether the memorial gathering or Vax’ildan’s “good” news was to blame. Sherri had come home not long after Vox Machina had left, and insisted Gilmore stop cleaning and sit down. He introduced her to Lockheed and let the dragonet get used to her while Danika replenished his life force. 

Gilmore only let Sherri clean for an hour before he sent her to bed. It was late. Gilmore sat by the fire--tempted to crawl into the hearth, but he didn’t want to worry his healer--thinking about Vox Machina’s impending journey to Ank’Harel. 

He wouldn’t have gone with them, even if he could have. And his presence would have been far more of a hindrance than a help.  _ But perhaps…  _ Gilmore wondered if he should send word ahead to Soren and Opesa, but they knew their main function now was to guard the sigil. They were good children; they would know what to do when Vox Machina arrived. 

Gilmore did his best not to agonize over how much trouble Vox Machina could get into in Marquet, or how easy it would be for them to end up imprisoned or worse. How it would doubtless come back to him if they wrought their usual havoc through the city. There was little he could do about it. Asking them to behave would doubtless just encourage them to act badly; that was usually how their logic worked. Seeing just how contrary they had taken his warnings about the Feywild, this time Gilmore resolved to tell them very little. Maybe that was the best way to go. 

Part of him hoped that Jarett would come visit tonight, but maybe it would be better if Gilmore had a little time to think about what he wanted first. If Jarett came now, it would be too much of a temptation to pick him up where Vax had left off, and that wouldn’t be fair to Jarett. Just because Gilmore was feeling a bit abandoned and underappreciated… Given some time and an abundance of caution, perhaps Gilmore would see where this thing with Jarett went. But it was a dangerous game that was not Gilmore’s to lose. Perhaps he should give up all together. 

And what had Scanlan meant with his threat of blackmail? Why was he still on this idea that Gilmore must be a dragon? Had he not believed Gilmore when he’d told him he was not one in Emon? Or had something new occurred to make him pick up his old theory? He hoped Scanlan would not do something foolish and mention it to “Assum.” Raishan didn’t strike him as the type to leave things to chance. One dead gnome was nothing to her.

Speaking of whom, Gilmore had not seen Raishan since the day before yesterday. Likely she was just snooping around Whitestone for interesting tidbits of information. But Gilmore would have felt better if he could have kept tabs on her. Their relationship was hardly at a point where she was going to check in with him, and vice versa. 

Had she been lying about the eggs? Raishan had a gift for knowing just what to say in order to manipulate people. In the end, he decided it didn’t matter. If there was even a chance that wyrmlings were at stake, it would be worth the alliance to find out. Gilmore did believe that Thordak had done something to earn Raishan’s ire. Better beside her than against her while they still had a common enemy. 

After Danika left, Gilmore decided to soak in a hot bath to take the edge off the pain of constant wakefulness. Little Lockheed seemed to enjoy the steam, and perched on the edge of the tub, craning its neck to drink the bathwater. Of course, that was when Sherri decided to wake up and rap on the bathroom door. “Sir? Do you want me to make breakfast?” 

Gilmore thought about it. His appetite was waning by the day. Still. “There’s so much food left from last night. If you go to market, will you take it and drop it off at the town hall?”

There came a pause. “Am I allowed to eat some, Master Gilmore?” 

He chuckled. “Of course. But the two of us will never be able to get through it all before it spoils.”

“I understand,” she said. “I’ll take most of it to the townsfolk. Bacon and eggs okay?” 

“That sounds lovely. And any small peppers you can find? We’re running low on shatta.” Though Gilmore did not hold out much hope of finding hot peppers at Whitestone’s farmer’s market. Hopefully one of the refugees would be enterprising enough to plant some seeds when spring came.

“Yes, Sir.” 

“Thank you, Sherri dear. If you pass Pike on the way, tell her I’m in the bath.”

“I will. Be back soon.” He could hear her receding footsteps on the stairs. 

When Pike did not arrive at the usual time, Gilmore supposed he should go ahead and reset the barrier on his own; it couldn’t really wait. He reluctantly hauled himself out of the hot water, trying to shake off his drowsiness. Sufficiently warmed from the bath and alone in the house, Gilmore proceeded to his workroom nude. Clothes just got in the way of workings, sometimes. Gilmore laid out a towel and sat down on the floor to get centered, first. Pretty soon, he wasn’t going to have the focus left to do this on his own. But for today, he thought he could still manage it. 

Naturally, Gilmore had just begun the reset when there was a knock at the front door, followed by Vax’ildan’s voice: “Shaun. Shaun! It’s us. Are you home?” 

Of course. And not just his darling boy, for whom Gilmore could answer the door naked, but “us.” Why would they possibly come at any other time? Unfortunately for all of them, Gilmore could not just stop what he was doing. “Yeah. Hold on,” he called down, hoping they could hear him.

“Is everything okay?” he heard Vex’ahlia call out. So it must be all of them, then. Ready to be Teleported to Marquet, no doubt.

“Yes. Hold on, please,” he asked again. Vex’ahlia he knew, at least, would listen. So Gilmore turned his attention back to the barrier. Holding it in reset limbo was giving him a splitting headache. 

Once the reset was complete, Gilmore walked back to his room to pull on one of his few not-appearance-ready fuzzy bathrobes, because his skin was still damp, and he had less and less energy to put into his appearance these days. Lockheed flew into his room, so he shut the door behind it. 

Gilmore was still barefoot when he answered the door to the children. Feeling his robe slipping open, he caught it and held it closed. Perhaps he hadn’t been quick enough, because Vax stared at him, transfixed. Grog giggled quietly, glancing over at Scanlan, who looked almost as concerned as Vex’ahlia. 

“My sincerest apologies,” Gilmore told them. “I had to take care of the now morning ritual.” 

“How are you holding up, Gilmore?” Vex’ahlia asked with a worried frown.

Gilmore realized he still had his head scarf on and tore it off, shoving it into one of the pockets of his robe. He really was getting tired. “I’m fine,” Gilmore lied. “This is child’s play compared to what you’re having to deal with on a daily basis, I’m sure.” He flashed the brightest smile he could muster while doing his best to ignore Keyleth, who was staring at him intently. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Well, we plan to go to Marquet,” Vex’ahlia said.

“Right. Yes, yes.” This was not news to him. 

“Things have progressed much quicker than we expected it to,” she explained, “and unfortunately we are on a two week time crunch before all hell breaks loose.” 

Gilmore vaguely remembered them saying in the council meeting that two weeks was what they’d agreed upon with the Ravenites. Funny what lack of sleep could do to one’s memory. Gilmore smiled. “Well, at the very least, that gives us a series of days to make the best of the time we have.” Vax did not look comforted by this assessment. But it was no less than the truth. 

“So, Marquet it is. All right. Come in, come in.” Seeing Scanlan looking, Gilmore closed his robe more firmly to preserve the girls’ modesty and stepped away from the door to let them in, leading the way to the drawing room. The ever-present teapot sat on the low table between the seating arrangements by the hearth, reminding him. “Tea, anyone?” He glanced back at the group. “Tea? Anyone?” 

Vax raised a finger. “Yeah.”

“I’d like a loose-leaf oolong, please,” Scanlan said, as ridiculous as ever. 

“I’ll do what I can.” Gilmore used Telekinesis to summon 6 more cups and saucers from the kitchen, which floated in and arranged themselves on the table as he walked past them to put the kettle on. 

“One more, please,” Vax’ildan said--as if Gilmore would forget him. 

It wasn’t long before he returned with a fresh pot of tea and took a seat on the other side of Vax from Keyleth. “All right, so this isn’t going to send you to...where are you going exactly?” 

“We literally know nothing about Marquet,” Scanlan confessed. 

“It’s hot. It’s dry. Bring some water if you can,” Gilmore advised. 

“You’re not able to leave, are you?” Vax asked. And Gilmore wished he was asking because he wanted Gilmore’s company, but he knew that not to be the case this time. He reminded Vax that he couldn’t leave while the barrier had to be maintained. 

“Is there anyone that we can say maybe vouches for us or someone who we are against so that we can win favor with the locals?” Scanlan asked. “Something like a no-tail, long-tail binary?” 

Gilmore hid a smile, remembering their report of the grave miscalculation they’d made with their disguises in the ruins of Draconia. Too bad they hadn’t known anyone who’d already been scrying there to ask before making that foolish plan... 

“We walked into a sort of political snafu because we didn’t know the lay of the land, so is there anything we should know in advance?” Vax asked, looking deep into Gilmore’s eyes in a way he found distracting. 

Gilmore reluctantly glanced away. “Best I can tell you--because I haven’t been there since I was very young--one: this is going to send you not to Ank’Harel itself. It’s going to send you to Shandal, which is a small oasis village a little ways south of Ank’Harel. It’s where I grew up.” Or so the official story went. “I will say that it has been about 15 years, so I don’t quite know what to expect there.” And that was the truth. He communicated with Soren and Opesa very rarely these days. “I apologize in advance for any ensuing chaos, but it’s a nice town. It’s small, it’s sleepy. It’s not my speed. Hence why I came here.” It made a good cover story, at least. Probably less believable once they saw the Jeweled City for themselves... 

“However, in Marquet, it’s mostly music, culture, fun people, good food. Don’t break the laws.” He probably shouldn’t have said it, but he couldn’t let them go with  **no** warnings. “Don’t drink the water freely from the various channels you may stumble across. Water there is a commodity. It is controlled and sold throughout the city. Those are the main things I can think of. I don’t know what else you’re really looking for there.”

Several of them began to speak at once, then. Through the noise, Gilmore heard “Cabal’s Ruin” and “Den of Drujah.” He presumed the former was the name of a Vestige, and he wondered if an artifact so inauspiciously named was really worth retrieving. As for the latter, Gilmore was not certain why the sphinx (or whoever it was) would have told them to seek out a long-disbanded thieves’ guild. Perhaps their information was out of date. Certainly, it seemed safer to send Vox Machina searching for sources of trouble which no longer existed. Gilmore decided to let them. With any luck, they would realize it was a dead end and return to take on Vorugal all the sooner. 

“I don’t know anything about that, unfortunately, but most folks that have information are eager to give what they know with a little coin to grease the palm.”

“Or a little water,” Percy suggested in his know-everything way. 

Oh, they were going to find nothing at all, at this rate. Perhaps they’d be back as soon as tomorrow. “Depends on who you’re talking to, but...Anything else?” Gilmore asked. He bent to pour tea for each of them while he waited, snapping his fingers over Scanlan’s cup to give him a different flavor. There was no doubt in Gilmore’s mind that Scanlan had no idea what he’d asked for, but was just trying to be smart. So he got cardamom tea for being a smartass. And if his palate was like most Tal’Doreians, he would hate it.

“We are looking for a merchant warrior,” Vex’ahlia said. “Outside of you, do you know of any very powerful merchants?” 

Gilmore shrugged, smiling. In a city full of enterprising small business owners? “There are many.” 

“One with a missing eye?” she asked. 

“That would probably narrow it down, but none that I can remember off the top of my head.”

As Gilmore couldn’t--or, more accurately wouldn’t--go with them, Scanlan suggested they could bring Jarett along. Given that he was a fugitive, Gilmore imagined Jarett would say no, which was a relief. What would he do here in Whitestone with both Jarett and his Vax’ildan gone?

“We should talk to him,” Vex’ahlia said.

Then Scanlan said something that surprised Gilmore. A lot. “And also...Okay, Shaun, you do so much for us. We do nothing for you. Is there anything we can bring back for you, or messages to give to someone there?” It was the first time he’d heard the gnome acknowledge any of the unpaid labor Gilmore did for them. 

“Is there anyone you haven’t seen in all these years?” Vax asked. 

Why did it have to be Vax? Well. He was the one most likely to get scrutinized. May as well give him something to distract from whatever harsh judgment Vax would doubtless inspire. “When you meet them, you’ll know who they are.” Gilmore licked his lips nervously before continuing, “Just tell them I say hello. And actually…” He motioned for them to wait while he retrieved his escape bag. Gilmore had put it together long ago in a fit of homesickness, and kept it in case he needed to flee back to Marquet someday. 

He hurriedly withdrew it from the wall safe in the study, walking back to the drawing room before they could get into any trouble. Reaching into the bag, Gilmore produced the locket, reconsidering at the last minute and handing it to Vex’ahlia for safekeeping. After all, Vax had just proven he could be pickpocketed and not know for days. “Just give that to them.” 

“To them?” she repeated. Gilmore felt confident Vex’ahlia would understand if the time came. He quickly tucked the bag away again before any of them could become curious. 

“Shaun, are you doing okay?” Keyleth asked, calling him by the first name which he did not recall giving her permission to use. “You look a little worn out.” 

Did he really look that bad? “We do what we must.”

“I could only imagine a barrier of this size of a construct can be quite taxing on one’s physical energy.” Was she really concerned? Gilmore wondered. Well, she probably was. He shouldn’t let his jealousy get the better of him.

“Yes.” Gilmore sighed, offering a tired smile. “I guess if I had one request of all of you--this goes universally--can we end this dragon business soon? Please?”

“We’ll certainly try,” Vex’ahlia said. 

“I really,  _ really _ just want to set up shop again.” There was something to be said for being an anonymous merchant. Certainly, he’d had his fill of ‘interesting times.’

“We would like nothing more,” Vax assured him. “I think we’re on the same page.” 

“Oh yes,” Percival agreed.

“Great.” Gilmore leaned back in his chair. 

“We’re very interested to start paying you for your service again, Gilmore, and stop expecting it for free,” Vex’ahlia said. Had they talked to each other about this? It seemed so sudden, after all this time. But if anyone would have thought of it, he would have expected it to be Vex. 

“Good,” Gilmore said. “Because I’ve been keeping a tally. I don’t know about you guys, but the tab is running very, very deep.” Of course, he was just teasing them. But it was nice to finally be appreciated a little. 

“Oh, believe me,” Vex said. “I have, as well. This locket will take a nice little chunk off of that tally.” She actually did make a note in her ledger as she spoke.

“Fantastic.” He smiled. “I love it.” 

“Birds of a feather, you two,” Vax said, ever derogatory toward those who saw fit to do something so plebeian as keep track of debts and money. Gilmore chose not to be offended and chuckled instead, exchanging a knowing smile with Vex’ahlia.

Scanlan suggested they go speak with Jarett, and Percy began giving orders for what needed to happen before they were ready to leave. 

“I’ll be here if you need me,” Gilmore said.

“Thank you,” Vex said, as they walked out, promising to be back in an hour.

“Alright,” Gilmore said. “You don’t want the rest of your tea?” he asked, a little sad that no one wanted to stay and chat with him. Scanlan took his cup--apparently Gilmore had underestimated his palate--and Vex’ahlia asked for “to go” cups--whatever those were. 

Well. This set was left over from the previous occupant. He’d never really liked them, and his hoard was full of beautiful tea services and plate sets. “These didn’t belong to me, so please, take them if you want,” he told her, smiling.

With that, they were gone. Gilmore looked around at the abandoned cups, feeling a little sad. Worse yet, if they took Jarett to Ank’Harel with them, then Gilmore really would be alone, just as Vax had claimed he didn’t want last night. 

Feeling tiny claws digging into his arm, Gilmore looked down to find Lockheed happily kneading away at his bathrobe, apparently enjoying the texture of it.  _ “Now how did you get out?” _ he asked it, reaching down to rub between its eyes. 

Sherri called out a moment later to let him know she’d returned. “Let me go get dressed and I’ll be down to help,” he told her. 

Maybe he really did look as bad as Keyleth had indicated, Gilmore thought, as he walked up the stairs. Between the tatty bathrobe and having left his hair up, they’d certainly never seen him in such a state before. Well, what did it really matter? He’d be alone again any minute now. 


End file.
